Mower guard construction



May 18, 1937 w. R. GILLETTE Er AL 2,080,471

MOWER GUARD CONSTRUCTION 'Filed May 22, 1935 linl iuatented Jiay 1.8,

PATENT OFFICE.

Warner, Elgin, and Bolt Company, poration of Illinois Application Maylil., assgnors to Illinois iron Carpentersville, Ill., a cor- 22', 1935,Seriai No. 22,696

rIhis invention relates to mower guard construction, and concerns itselfprimarily with twin guards for providing two cutting operations for eachcutting blade or section when moving in each direction, and withprovisions for attaching such guards to standard cutter bars; thearrangement being such that the cutting blades or sections will come torest within one prong of a guard, as is the practice when single guardsare used. These increased number of prongs not only increase the cuttingcapacity, but they also greatly decrease the possibility of lstones orthe like from lodging therebetween and breaking the cutting blades orsections.

The invention comprises the novel structure and combination of partshereinafter described and more particularly pointed out and defined inthe appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates a preferred form of thisinvention and in which similar reference numerals refer to similarfeatures in the different views:

Figure l is a broken plan view of a cutter bar for a mowing machineequipped with cutter guards involving this invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged view similar to Figure 1 with parts removed.

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially upon the lineIII-III of Figure 1, locking in the direction of the arrows.

In order to explain and illustrate the novel characteristics of thisinvention, there shown in the drawing the usual knife back I inconnection with which is used a complete knife consisting of therequired number of cutting blades or sections 2 riveted to the knife Theknife also includes the usual head, not shown. The sections 2 cooperatewith guards 4 for performing the cutting operations. In the past, it hasbeen the common practice to use single guards; each guard being attachedby a bolt 5 extending through an aperture 6 in a cutter bar 1, commonlycalled a naked cutter or finger bar. According to this invention,instead of a single guard, twin guards 4 are employed and they are madeintegral with a plate 8, usually termed the cutter bar seat having anaperture 9 that is offset from the transverse center line of the cutterbar seat 8 so as to register with the aperture E existing in the cutterbar 1 as shown in Fig. 3.

Upon the right hand end of the cutter bar, there is a complete guard 8arhaving three guard prongs 4 thereon to complete the required number.Each .guard plate is attached to the plate 1 by means of a removablebolt 5, whereby the guards may be readily removed.

The guards l are shown as provided with a guideway Il) for receiving theknife back I. At suitable intervals, pressure clips II, commonly calledknife clips may be attached to the naked cutter bar 'I by the bolts 5for bearing against the cutter blades 2. Suitable spacing plates,commonly called wear plates I2 are preferably placed under the attachedportions of the clips II. The inner ends of the plates I2 havedownwardly directed flanges I3 that contact the near side of the knifeback and form a part of the guideway Ill.

The guards are preferably made from malleable castings that involve asubstantial economy over forged guards. The guards are also providedwith the usual ledger plates I4 which in the present instance are madeof hardened steel so as to more effectively retain their cutting edges.It will be noted that the guard seats 8 have straight side edges 8bwhich extend to the rear thereof whereby adjacent guard seats are inabutting relation at the bolt apertures 9. As the bolt apertures 9 arein eccentric relation t0 the center line thereof there is a considerableturning or torsional movement with respect to the securing bolts 5.However since the guard seats are in, abutting relation at their rearends adjacent the securing bolts 5, this turning movement is resistedand overcome.

These twin and triple guards greatly increase the cutting capacity ofthe complete cutter bars. In offsetting the bolt holes in these guardsas above set forth, it is possible to attach the same to standard cutterbars with all the fittings and bring the guards in the proper positionsso that the cutter of each knife will momentarily come to rest at thecenter of a prong of a guard at the extreme outward and inward thrust ofthe knives and prevent clogging. With the provision of the completeguard with three prongs at one end of the naked cutter bar, and a twinguard at the other end thereof that may be provided with the propercontour to meet the exigency of the shoes on any cutter bar, the problemof providing cutter bars with these twin and triple guards to greatlyincrease the cutting capacity thereof and at the same time preventclogging becomes a simple problem.

It will be appreciated that according to this invention, it is possibleto remove the guards having a single prong on a cutter bar now in useand replace the same with a guard having a plurality of prongs thereonin order to increase the cutting action of the sections during thereciprocation thereof. This replacement is effected by using the boltholes already existing in aperture olset in alignment with a prong, saidprong seats hav- WILLIAM R. GILLE'ITE. ARTHUR L. WARNER.

